1846: Milwaukee, Wisconsin is incorporated. The area had been inhabited by a number of Native American tribes who moved into the area from the Green Bay region after European settlers moved in. Eventually, three small towns grew up around the Milwaukee River. Solomon Juneau’s Juneautown was on the east side of the river and was established in 1818. Byron Kilbourn founded Kilbourntown to the south and George Walker settled Walker’s Point to the south, both in 1834. Animosity between the three towns began as soon as Kilbourn arrived and began marking out the streets for his new town – totally ignoring Juneautown’s existence. Kilbourn also told any steamers delivering goods to his docks that the opposite side of the river was an Indian trading post.

In 1840, the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature found the current ferry system on the Milwaukee River to be inadequate and ordered the building of a bridge. Juneautown was the first to build a bridge with Juneau’s support. Kilbourn built a bridge crossing the Menominee River. Three more were built over the Milwaukee River within the next few years but Kilbourn was unhappy with this citing hazardous conditions for ships visiting his docks. On May 3, 1845, a schooner rammed into one of the bridges. Rumors spread that it was a deliberate act because east ward residents had refused to pay for maintenance. A meeting was held and it was found the bridge that Juneau built was an “insupportable nuisance”.

The Milwaukee Bridge War broke out when the west warders collapsed the bridge and east warders gathered weapons, including an old cannon. They loaded their weapons and moved to the other side of the river and took their large gun and pointed it at Kilbourn’s house. They did not fire when they learned Kilbourn’s young daughter had just died. The fight for which bridges would be kept and which would be destroyed waged as there was little consensus as to which was the best bridge for both sides of the river. As tempers cooled, it was decided three new bridges would be built for the new town combining all three of the prior smaller towns. Milwaukee’s current bridges are a testament to this old feud as many of them run at angles reflecting the different street layouts of the two major participants.

Today, Milwaukee is the largest city in Wisconsin and the fifth-largest in the Midwestern United States. The city covers 90.80 square miles and nearly 600,000 people live there with about 1.5 million people living in the greater metropolitan area. Even before its founding, the region was known as a prime port and it remains so today. Milwaukee is also famous for its brewing of beer and was once the home of the world’s four largest beer breweries. Six different Fortune 500 companies have their international headquarters in the city.

When I was a teenager in Milwaukee in the 1980s, life was pretty boring, and I found myself riveted by the sheer melodrama of everyday life of the 1960s. – Rick Perlstein

We build too many walls and not enough bridges. – Isaac Newton

We should make a major financial commitment to improving our roads and bridges. – Bernie Sanders

There is nothing in machinery, there is nothing in embankments and railways and iron bridges and engineering devices to oblige them to be ugly. Ugliness is the measure of imperfection. – H. G. Wells

1933: Machtergreifung begins. On November 9, 1923 the Beer Hall Putsch failed in its attempt to seize power, but was instrumental in teaching Adolf Hitler new tactics. His lawyer and adviser, Hans Frank, developed a legal strategy for the “National Revolution” and the takeover of the government by the Nazi Party. In the 1930 elections, the Nazi Party saw great successes even as Chancellor Heinrich Brüning worked to keep both the constitution and the state itself alive under a minority government supported by the Social Democrats. His efforts served to increase mass unemployment as he brought in austerity measures to attempt to create a balanced budget. In 1932, President Paul von Hindenburg ousted Brüning and replaced him with Franz von Papen, Hindenburg’s confidant.

It was hoped that Papen would sway the growing Nazi Party members to support Hindenburg against up and coming factions. In the next month, another federal election found the Reighstag (Congress) filled with even more Nazis and Papen’s attempt at a coalition government failed. More elections were held in November and while the Nazis lost some seats, they were successful in keeping Papen’s coalition from forming. Papen resigned and twenty representatives of agriculture, finance, and industry intervened with President Hindenburg and requested he replace Papen with their own choice for Chancellor, Adolf Hitler. On this day, the 84-year-old President did just that and with Hitler and the Nazi Party in this leadership position, they began to consolidate their power base, or Machtergreifung.

In under a month, the new regime was working assiduously to control everything. On February 27 the Reighstag was set ablaze by a Dutch council Communist and unemployed brick layer, Marinus van der Lubbe. Hitler requested President Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree (based on emergency powers granted by the Weimar Constitution). This decree suspended most citizen rights and allowed the Nazis to arrest political opponents, mostly Communists. March had another election which had the Nazis with less power. But Communists were not permitted to take any seats won since their party had been banned earlier in the month. The new Reichstag passed the Enabling Act which gave the government, but specifically Hitler, the power make his own laws without the Reichstag. He continued to consolidate his power base.

Within six months, Hitler established the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, aka the Nazi Party, as the only legal political party in Germany. The next phase, Gleichschaltung, was the process of bringing all of Germany under the totalitarian control of the Nazis. They wished to control the economy, all trade associations, the media, the culture, and education. Their relentless pursuit of these goals culminated in the resolutions approved during the Nuremberg Rally of 1935. The symbols of the state and the party fused and the German flag became the Nazi flag. Jews were deprived of citizenship. And the path was set for the Holocaust. World War II would follow.

All great movements are popular movements. They are the volcanic eruptions of human passions and emotions, stirred into activity by the ruthless Goddess of Distress or by the torch of the spoken word cast into the midst of the people.

All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.

By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise.

1861: Kansas is admitted to the US as the 34th state. The region has been inhabited for millennia by several different native tribes. The name Kansas comes from the tribe living there when Europeans arrived, the Kansa. Francisco Vásquez de Coronado was the first non-native to explore the region for Spain in 1541. Most of the land came into the possession of the United States when purchased from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase. The southwest portion of what would become the state was still part of Spain, Mexico, and the Republic of Texas. At the end of the Mexican-American War, this territory was ceded to the US and became part of the Missouri Territory. The Santa Fe Trail bisected the state and was a major route across the Midwest from 1821 to 1880.

The first permanent settlement of Americans was built in 1827 at Fort Leavenworth. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 established two new territories – Nebraska and Kansas which included parts of present day Colorado, including Denver, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo. The dates of settlement coincided with the build up to the US Civil War and the state was a hotbed of dispute between free and slave states. Missouri and Arkansas sent in settlers to help sway votes to a slave state. Waves of abolitionists from as far away as Massachusetts arrived in order to keep the area free. As the forces collided, the region became known as Bleeding Kansas.

On this day, as the new state entered the union, it did so as a free state and most of the violence there had subsided, at least until brought back by the fighting of the War. After the war, many veterans (black and white and north and south) came to Kansas to farm. Many freed blacks set up whole communities away from the old South and they were known as Exodusters. The Chisholm Trail opened and the area became part of the Wild West with colorful characters free to range across what was mostly wide open spaces.

The state covers 87,278 square miles and is the 15th largest state in the union. It has a population of approximately 3 million, ranking it as 34th largest. The capital is Topeka but Wichita is the largest city with Kansas City having the largest metropolitan reach. Kansas has several large corporate industries employing several thousand Kansans. They are eighth in oil production in the US and that has declined with time. However, natural gas and wind farms supply other energy sources. Kansas is known for its volatile weather, including many tornadoes and The Wizard of Oz is probably one of the most famous movies set in Kansas – at least in part.

It isn’t necessary to have relatives in Kansas City in order to be unhappy. – Groucho Marx

As a young girl, I saw commitment in my grandmother, who helped Grandpa homestead our farm on the Kansas prairie. Somehow they outlasted the Dust Bowl, the Depression, and the tornadoes that terrorize the Great Plains. – Sheri L. Dew

Nothing is eternally stable, and even Kansas isn’t really in Kansas anymore. The earth is in a constant state of flux. – Simon Winchester

1958: At 1.58 PM, Ole Kirk Christiansen receives a patent. Christiansen was the tenth son of an impoverished Danish family and born in 1891. He was trained as a carpenter and began making wooden toys in 1932, after losing his job due to the Great Depression. His wife died soon after and left him to raise his four sons alone. He began a line of wooden ducks and opened a small factory to make them. It burned in 1942 and he was forced to rebuild. He then began making miniature houses and furniture like what he had made when fully employed. His product line expanded and by 1949 he produced over 200 plastic and wooden toys. His third son, Godtfred, joined the business and became a Junior Vice President on his 30th birthday in 1950.

When the company first opened, it needed a name and there was a contest to decide what it would become. Two names under consideration were “Legio” with a reference to a legion of toys and “Lego” a contraction of the Danish “leg godt” which means “play well”. It was later learned the word in Latin meant “I put together” or “I assemble”. Lego, of course, won. The first sets of self-locking bricks did not work well. While they were better for building than traditional stacking wooden blocks, they lacked the versatility for which they are known today. The plastics available in Denmark after World War II were not of the same quality as that which can be produced today and customers preferred traditional wood or metal toys. A new idea was hatched and a hollow tube was added to the underside of the bricks which solved two major problems.

In 1964, the plastic used was changed to ABS. It is more stable and non-toxic and still in use today. In 1964, instruction manuals were added to packages of Lego blocks and soon more sets were sold with the blocks to build amazing creations and the pictures to help even small children build them. In the 1970s, the product line expanded and started to offer products to girls such as houses with furniture. A greater array of masterpieces could be built using hundreds of blocks. Minifigures were added as were the movie based lines of products. There have been Lego movies, games, and competitions. There are six Legoland amusement parks created as well.

Godtfred took over the management of the company after his father’s death in 1958. His own son, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen (no explanation for spelling change), took over as president and CEO when his father retired. He ran the company until his retirement in 2004 and remains the richest Dane with a net worth of nearly $10 billion. Today, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp is the CEO and the first non-family member to hold that position. After a downturn in business from which the company was able to rebound, they have sold over 600 billion Lego parts. In February 1915, Lego replaced Ferrari as Brand Finance’s “world’s most powerful brand”.

If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door. – Milton Berle

We build too many walls and not enough bridges. – Isaac Newton

You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality. – Walt Disney

You can’t build a great building on a weak foundation. You must have a solid foundation if you’re going to have a strong superstructure. – Gordon B. Hinckley

1945: Auschwitz concentration camp is liberated. The camp was part of the Nazi system built by the Third Reich in Poland. The original camp, Auschwitz I, and the second camp, Auschwitz II-Birkenau were later joined by Auschwitz III-Monowitz. The first of the concentration camps was built in 1940 and the first extermination of prisoners took place in September 1941. Auschwitz II-Birkenau went on to become a major site for the Nazi Final Solution to the Jewish Question. Between 1942 and late 1944 trains brought prisoners to the camp in droves. Jews especially were brought here where they were killed in gas chambers filled with the pesticide Zyklon B. At least 1.1 million people were killed at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, with about 90% of them Jews. Seventeen percent of all Jews killed in the Holocaust died at this camp.

Jews were not the only people sent to Auschwitz. There were also 150,000 Poles, 23,000 Romani and Sinti, 15,000 Russian POWs, 400 Jehovah’s Witnesses, and tens of thousands of others. Another targeted group were homosexuals who were persecuted regardless of religion or national origin. The gas chambers were not the only way for prisoners to die. Others were killed by starvation, forced labor, disease, executions, and medical experimentation. The Nazi staff at Auschwitz consisted of about 7,000 members of the German Schutzstaffel or SS and about 12% of the staff was later convicted of war crimes. Rudolf Höss, the camp commandant, was executed for his role in the mass killings.

During the last half of 1944, when the War was coming to an end, not in favor of the Third Reich, there were about 130,000 prisoners held at Auschwitz. As the Soviet Red Army got ever nearer, about half of the prisoners were transported to other, more distant, prisons. As the Red Army entered Poland in November 1944, Himmler ordered the mass scale gassing operations to cease not only at Auschwitz but across the Reich. Creamatorias were dismantled or repurposed into air raid shelters. The SS was ordered to get rid of evidence of the mass executions. To that end, as the Red Army drew ever closer, the remaining staff burned records and demolished many buildings.

At the beginning of the month, Himmler ordered evacuations of all camps. On January 17, 58,000 Auschwitz prisoners began a forced march towards Wodzisław Śląski but thousands died or were killed on the march. On this day, the 322nd Rifle Division of the Red Army liberated the camp were only 7,500 prisoners remained alive along with over 600 corpses. Also found at the camp were 370,000 men’s suits, 837,000 women’s garments, and 8.5 tons of human hair. This date is celebrated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the camp site has been dedicated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The sad and horrible conclusion is that no one cared that Jews were being murdered… This is the Jewish lesson of the Holocaust and this is the lesson which Auschwitz taught us. – Ariel Sharon

That I survived the Holocaust and went on to love beautiful girls, to talk, to write, to have toast and tea and live my life – that is what is abnormal. – Elie Wiesel

Jews survived all the defeats, expulsions, persecutions and pogroms, the centuries in which they were regarded as a pariah people, even the Holocaust itself, because they never gave up the faith that one day they would be free to live as Jews without fear. – Jonathan Sacks

The Holocaust, taken by itself, is a black hole. To look at it directly is to be swallowed up by it. – David Novak

1891: Francesco Castiglia is born in Cassano allo Ionio, Italy. In 1895, he, his mother and his brother, Edward, boarded a ship to come to America and join the senior Castiglia who had opened a small neighborhood grocery store in East Harlem a few years before. By the time Francesco was 13, his older brother had introduced him to gang life and he began using the name Frankie. He was first jailed for assault and robbery in 1908 and then again in 1912 and 1917. He married Lauretta Giegerman, a friend’s sister and a Jew. He served ten months in jail for possession of a concealed weapon. Upon his release, he decided that using his brains instead of violence was the way to make in the criminal world.

Castiglia was working with the Morello gang when he met Charlie “Lucky” Luciano and the two became friends and partners. Many of the older Luciano family did not approve since Castiglia was not Sicilian. But the times were changing and the older mafiosi were forced to deal not only with non-Sicilian Italians, but the Irish and the Jews also joined into a lucrative post-Prohibition economy. The younger men were able to work with a more diverse group of criminals and spread their influence into new avenues. It was around this time Frank changed his name to Costello, perhaps to sound a bit more Irish to the rumrunners from Hell’s Kitchen known as “The Combine”. Eventually, after beating a bribery charge, Costello was able to take over the running of The Combine.

The Castellammarese War was waged between Joe Masseria and the other four major New York crime families. Costello and Luciano were allied with Masseria against the Maranzano faction. The war waged for two years, wreaked havoc with the crime business and cut into profits. The war needed to end and the criminals needed to get back to the business of crime before they were wiped away from the streets of New York. Leaders of both factions were murdered and Luciano became the new crime boss with Costello as consigliere. He became one of the biggest earners in the family and carved out his own niche in slot machines and the numbers. After Luciano was arrested in 1936, he tried to run his gang from prison but ended up handing the reins to Genovese but he was indicted in 1937. This left Costello in charge.

Genovese had been a proponent of the drug trade, but Costello was not, so the family stayed out of the drug trade. Costello was a popular Boss and opened many legitimate businesses to bolster his criminal activity. Genovese returned to New York and tried to wrest power away from Costello unsuccessfully. The feud went so far as an assassination attempt on Costello’s life which was also unsuccessful. In 1957, Costello’s rule was over and he was demoted but was permitted to keep much of his fortune. He was known as “The Prime Minister of the Underworld” during his retirement but the US Supreme Court finally stripped him of his citizenship and began deportation proceedings. He never left the country and died after suffering a heart attack in his Manhattan home. He was 82.

I’m sorry, counselor, I’d rather blow the goddamn case. (While on trial and his lawyer asked him to stop wearing $350 suits, which were hurting his case with the jury, and to switch to clothes from the plain pipe rack.) – Frank Costello

The only one that can do what I do is me. Lot of people had to die for me to be me. You wanna be me? – Frank Costello

When you decide to be something, you can be it. That’s what they don’t tell you in the church. When I was your age, they would say we can become cops or criminals. Today, what I’m saying to you is this: when you’re facing a loaded gun, what’s the difference? – Frank Costello

One of us had to die. With me, it tends to be the other guy. – Frank Costello

1964: Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS) is founded. The company was begun by two University of Oregon track athletes, Phil Knight and his coach, Bill Bowerman. Originally, they acted as distributors for Japanese shoes made by Onitsuka Tiger (today, ASICS) and made most sales out of the trunk of Knight’s car during track meets. Another athlete, Otis Davis, claims the first pair of shoes Bowerman made were for him, regardless of what later reports indicate, but he also said he did not like them. During their first year of business, BRS sold 1,300 pair of Japanese running shoes, grossing $8,000. By the next year, they had a full time employee and more than doubled sales to $20,000. The next year, they opened their first retail store in Santa Monica, California. Sales increased and spread to the other coast.

By 1971, BRS and Onitsuka Tiger were nearing the end of their association and the owners launched their own footwear line. Along with this decision came a name change and logo update. The name they chose was Nike and on June 18, the Swoosh designed by Carolyn Davidson was first used. It was registered with the Patent Office in 1974. They hired John Brown and Partners as their first advertising agency and had their first “brand ad” aired the next year – “There is no finish line”. By 1980, Nike had 50% of the US athletic shoe market and the company went public in December of that year.

During the following decade, Nike expanded the product line to include more sports and regions of the world. Wieden+Kennedy, their current advertising agency, have created many notable print and television campaigns. It was Dan Wieden who came up with the famous “Just Do It” line in 1988. In 1990, Nike moved headquarters to an eight-building World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. While headquartered in the US, the company has over 700 shops around the world and offices in 45 countries other than the US. Their hiring practices outside the US has led to criticisms regarding what is termed Nike sweatshops where labor laws were circumvented, a practice Nike has claimed has since been halted.

Today, the multi-national company still has Phil Knight as Chairman Emeritus and Mark Parker as Chairman, President and CEO. Bill Bowerman died in 1999. Today, Nike employs over 62,000 people and in 2015 had a net income of $3,273,000,000 – more than 400,000 times the amount earned that first year. Their total assets in 2015 were $21.600 billion and total equity was $12.707 billion. Knight has been generous in philanthropic efforts, donating over $100 million to Stanford University. He has also donated generously to the University of Oregon and he and his wife have pledged $100 million to cancer research at the Oregon Health & Science University.

I don’t consider myself enigmatic, but I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my public persona.

There is an immutable conflict at work in life and in business, a constant battle between peace and chaos. Neither can be mastered, but both can be influenced. How you go about that is the key to success.

At first, we couldn’t be establishment, because we didn’t have any money. We were guerrilla marketers, and we still are, a little bit. But, as we became No. 1 in our industry, we’ve had to modify our culture and become a bit more planned.

You can’t explain much in 60 seconds, but when you show Michael Jordan, you don’t have to. It’s that simple. – all from Phil Knight

1916: Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., is decided. The United States Supreme Court heard the case based on income taxes. The Sixteenth Amendment to the US Constitution had been passed in 1913 and in response to that passing, the Revenue Act of 1913 was implemented. The Act permitted the imposition of an income tax but these were not apportioned among the states based on state population. Frank R. Brushaber was the plaintiff and he was also a shareholder in the Union Pacific Railroad Company (the defendant). Brushaber wanted an injunction to stop the company from paying the taxes levied against it. He believed the tax to be in violation of the Fifth Amendment, stating it was taking away personal property without due process. He also argued the tax was not apportioned among the states and was therefore unconstitutional.

The case was argued before the Court on October 14-15, 1915. The verdict was handed down on this day, with an impressive 8-0 decision (Justice James Clark McReynolds did not participate). Chief Justice Edward Douglas White opined the Sixteenth Amendment removed the need for apportioning by population. He reviewed the rights and powers listed in the amendment and found them to be consistent with the Revenue Act. He also found the Constitution gave the government power to institute taxation itself and it was not seizure without due process. Other arguments were similarly handled and the landmark case confirmed the government’s power to issue a personal income tax.

Taxation is the price for society and civilization. The pooling of funds to provide for the greater good has been an issue since societies began. Who is to pay for the projects needed by all to live in concert? Funds can be obtained in only so many ways and taxation seems to have become standard practice. The tariffs and taxes can be levied against certain goods or against other real property, including income. The benefit of funding the government has been seen as outweighing the personal sacrifices made by the taxpayers.

The first time a personal income tax was bandied about for US citizens was during the War of 1812. The war ended before the need for the funds was imperative and the tax was never enacted. During the US Civil War, Congress imposed the first personal income tax in 1861 but the law was repealed in 1862. In 1894, the first peacetime income tax was imposed but only on the top 10% of American households had income high enough to be taxed. It was deemed unconstitutional because it counted rents and interest income from personal property. The Sixteenth Amendment clarified what would be considered taxable income. Several times the idea of taxation has come before this highest Court and the personal income tax remains a viable way to support the common good of society.

Every diminution of the public burdens arising from taxation gives to individual enterprise increased power and furnishes to all the members of our happy confederacy new motives for patriotic affection and support. – Andrew Jackson

Nearly everywhere monarchs raised themselves further above the level of the greatest nobles and buttressed their new pretensions to respect and authority with cannons and taxation. – J. M. Roberts

Taxation is just a sophisticated way of demanding money with menaces. – Terry Pratchett

If it is the duty of the State to educate, it is the duty of the State also to bear the burden of education, namely, the taxation out of which education is provided. – Edmund Barton

1795: The Battle of Texel takes place during the War of the First Coalition. The war itself was fought between 1792 and 1797 and involved several European monarchies battling the French First Republic. This particular battle had the Republican French facing the Dutch Republic. Den Helder is located at the northern tip of North Holland and south of the island of Texal in what was, at the time, a shallow portion of Zuiderzee bBay. In the fall of 1794, the French began their conquest of the Netherlands and by January 1795 had taken Amsterdam to use as a winter base. Only eighty miles north, a Dutch fleet of fourteen ships was anchored at Den Helder.

The winter was exceptionally cold and the Zuiderzee froze solid. The 8th Hussar squadron was led by Jean-Guillaume de Winter northwards. He and his troops arrived at Den Helder on this night. The fleet was, as intelligence had suggested, trapped in the ice. Each hussar carried along on his horse, one infantryman of the 15th Line Infantry Regiment. They quietly approached the ships after the hussars had covered the horses’ hooves with fabric. The ice held and the hussars and infantrymen were able to complete the sneak approach and board the ships. The Dutch lost 14 warships and 850 guns along with several merchant ships. It is the only time in military history where cavalry captured a fleet. It is to be noted that one other time cavalry, on land, was able to secure the capture of two ships stuck on a sandbar.

The entire Dutch resistance was quashed when the fleet surrendered. There is some dispute about whether or not an actual battle with shots fired ever took place or whether the Dutch simply surrendered to overpowering forces. The French had been drafting young men for years prior to this and had a supply of infantrymen to take and hold lands. After the fall of the Low Countries, France established the Batavian Republic as a puppet state. The troops rolled on into Prussia and after a peace treaty with Spain, they were able to move eastward. By the following year, with three fronts advancing, one of them under Napoleon Bonaparte, the French troops linked up and could march on Vienna.

The French continued their move forward with some defeats. However, Napoleon’s creative battle tactics were able to offset these. By February 24, 1797 the last battle was fought resulting in an unconditional surrender to the French troops and Austria’s forces were the last to fall, this time. The Treaty of Campo Formia was signed in October and Austria ceded Belgium to France and recognized France’s control of the Rhineland and much of Italy. The War of the First Coalition ended although Great Britain and France remained locked in hostilities.

It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse. – Adlai E. Stevenson

A siren is the sound of the twenty-first-century cavalry on the way. – Rosamund Lupto

We pay for the navy, and we have no commerce for the navy to protect; we pay for the army, and we loathe and execrate the work upon which it has been engaged. – John Edward Redmond

Neither the Army nor the Navy is of any protection, or very little protection, against aerial raids. – Alexander Graham Bell

1877: Arthur Tooth is taken into police custody. He was born in 1839 in Kent, England. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and graduated with a degree in science in 1862. He traveled around the world twice and was known as an accomplished horseman and a crack shot. During his travels, he became interested in the priesthood and took an interest in Ritualism. He became an ordained vicar and was assigned to a local parish, but he and his vicar disagreed on how to serve the parishioners. Tooth became an ordained priest in 1864 and served at several different churches. By 1868, he had been assigned to St. James’s Hatcham, a working class parish in southeast London.

His work there began to attract large congregations. He was an inspired preacher and introduced several more ritualistic practices within the parish. He also developed programs to help the more needy and established the Guild of All Souls at St. James’s in 1873. The Public Worship Regulation Act was passed 1874. This act, introduced by the Archbishop of Canterbury, had as its purpose the limitation of growing ritualism within Anglo-Catholicism and the Oxford Movement within the Church of England. Benjamin Disraeli, then Prime Minister, supported the bill as did Queen Victoria. Arthur Tooth did not and he continued his practice as he had.

On July 13, 1876 his case came before Lord Penzance at Lambeth Palace. Tooth did not appear before the court although he had been charged with using incense, vestments and altar candles. He ignored the entire proceeding in spite of getting legal counsel to submit. His services were now constantly being disrupted, not by parishioners, but by outsiders who were hired by his opponents for the sole purpose of disruption. After repeatedly ignoring the decisions of the Court of Arches, he was brought in for contempt of court and imprisoned at Horsemonger Lane Gaol in London. He was immediately cast into the position of martyr and his story became headline news. Due to public outcry, the Public Worship Regulation Act came into disrepute (although it was not repealed until 1965) and Tooth’s conviction was overturned on a technicality.

He lived for another 52 years but his health was adversely affected for the rest of his life. He was never again given his own parish to run but he had no desire for any further fame or notoriety. He established a chapel, convent, and orphanage school on property he purchased in 1878 and spent the rest of his life in the pursuit of helping disadvantaged children. In 1927, he moved his school to a new location and brought his 27 boys plus three religious sisters to Otford Court near Sevenoaks. The school became St. Michael’s Preparatory School and still exists today.

Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others. – John F. Kennedy

Religious tolerance is something we should all practice; however, there have been more persecution and atrocities committed in the name of religion and religious freedom than anything else. – Walter Koenig

In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution. – Alexander Hamilton

Once you attempt legislation upon religious grounds, you open the way for every kind of intolerance and religious persecution. – William Butler Yeats